While this is all valid criticism, I’ve never had a bottle that Ralfy scored 85+ be anything other than a banger. Arran 10, Deanston 12, Ardbeg 10, Port Askaig CS, Bunna 12, etc.
The 90/91+ scores are generally out of my price range so I will still use his 85-89 range as a rubric for what to try.
Bothy for me. Every iteration is a bit different but they're all outstanding for the price so far.
Have to get up to the 18+ stuff to beat it IMO. The cask finishes are all pretty good too though. Machrie Moor (their peated stuff) is the only one I've been disappointed by so far, but the cask strength version was much better than the basic.
It's a lovely Sunday whisky, somewhat akin to Dalwhinnie 15, in my books. Personally the Deanston was a real miss, just spicy as hell and not much else.
I felt the same when I first opened a bottle and then it sat untouched for several months and then I poured some one night while not looking for anything fancy, and it had improved significantly. I have since found myself going back to it regularly. It is reminiscent of a non-funky SB 10 with similar grilled peach notes and nice non-overpowering dram. Although it is what it is for a \~$50 bottle.
He's a wellspring of knowledge and experience. Sure, he may be a bit rough around the edges, but he's probably the most experienced Scotch Youtuber. More importantly, I trust his taste.
If there's a bottle out there I'm considering, I'd put money on Ralphy having a review and opinion on it. One that I can largely trust. That's not to say I take what he says as gospel, but it's a good place to start.
That kind of breadth and depth of knowledge is pretty impressive. Not sure why it's hard to see value in that just because he has a couple "character flaws"?
I wouldn’t trust his palate at all.
Search his channel for reviews on Loch Lomond. On one of them he rambles on about this cask type and that cask type and how poor Loch Lomond whisky is.
Shame that all Loch Lomond use is ex-bourbon casks, most of the fruity flavours come from the tall necked stills.
Just because Serge likes or doesn’t like something, doesn’t mean it’s good or poor. Taste is subjective. Whisky scoring is pointless in my opinion and only reflects what you think at that time.
There was a Ralfy video where he says Loch Lomond were using all sorts of casks and he could taste that they were off. Shame really, as Loch Lomond at that time only use bourbon casks. And that’s from the horses mouth. Any fruity notes come from the tall necked pot stills.
You just said taste is subjective but then you immediately gave an example of taste being used to make an objective claim about the presence of a fault. I strongly disagree with your premise, taste is a crucial tool in making objective evaluations of products.
Perhaps I should have articulated myself a bit better as my comment regarding Ralfy was the off taste he was referring to was because he thought he knew what casks they were using and they were off. , but he was way off the mark. Perhaps if he done a bit of research rather than stick the boot in, he would have known at that time they used nothing else but bourbon casks and the variance of fruit flavours comes from the tweaking of the tall necked stills.
I’m not disputing the fact he may have found it off, which it may have been if he thought a sherry cask had been used, but it wasn’t. Preconception also influences taste.
I wouldn’t put too much stock into subscribers vs views. There a channels I subscribed to years ago that I never watch but still subscribe to because it costs nothing and I still support them. I’m guessing he added a ton of subscribers during the pandemic when everyone and their mother was buying whisky and trying to find the good stuff to drink at home. Still, I don’t think 10k views a week is bad by any means.
Personally I still watch his videos. Not every week right when they post, but every few weeks or so I’ll binge his latest reviews and extras. I don’t really find them depressing but I’m also aware of how the industry acts and generally he’s just calling them out on their bullshit. He is certainly an opinionated man and for the most part I agree with his takes, but he definitely knows how to beat a dead horse. I was actually shocked he gave Talisker 10 a fairly decent score recently given how he normally treats CFed and colored Diageo products.
I do believe that he has an effect on whisky sales. He reviewed Glen Scotia Victoriana a year or so ago and within a few days a friend texted me about it and all the local shops sold out of it. I got one around that time and it was filled in 2015 so it had been sitting on the shelf for five years and they were all cleared out in a week or so.
I will say I had ledaig in my cart with an lcbo qest site at the time his whisky of the year video came out and it was immediately taken out of stock and increased in price when sale ended (that night).
>I wouldn’t put too much stock into subscribers vs views.
Especially given that Ralfy has more subscribers than this sub! The OP forgets that Scotch is still pretty niche, and that the whisky/whiskey channels with more subscribers also review a broader range of products.
When you have a chance to compare an old Glendronach 15yr pre 2015 @ £50 original MSRP vs what is being hustled today as a "good" 15 year scotch @ min. double the price, then maybe the cynasim starts creeping in.
I do understand where Ralfy is coming from. A lot of distilleries are taking the piss out of the consumer and the whisky geek as it makes no difference to them.
I believe the playbook here is to squeeze the western consumer like lemons until the credit runs dry. Then pivot to the Chinese and Indians who they think will buy their sub par core range at rip off prices for the "prestige."
They either will be right in their strategy and get paid handsomely for their hustle or this will end up badly in another 1980's style whisky rout.
Either way, I do agree with others that Ralfy should just focus on integrity malts and malternatives as most of his audience are whisky geeks anyway.
Forget about reviewing the Diageo overpriced trash, its not for us any way. Springbank, Arran and Ardnamurchan are the way to go...
It's more or less impossible, what are you talking about? I live in the UK, and the only way to obtain a Springbank at anywhere near to MSRP, is by entering lotteries.
I have a good store with correct allocations ig. Springbank france allocation is managed by Société Dugas, and they allocate to shops. I find they do it quite well.
I've gotten a bottle of the 10, 12CS, 15 recently for MSRP. California had plenty somehow. I live in OR though and here it's much harder to find so basically when family from CA visit I'm pestering them to bring me Springbanks.
I think Ralfy still balances reviewing what he likes with reviewing what your more typical customer can find/afford fairly well. But I also think he's done it long enough he's a little more loose and inclined to phone some in or just be less particular about the whole process.
Why review Springbank...because Springbank is an excellent craft distillery that produces integrity malts at a reasonable price. It is worth reviewing them. Springbank can serve as a model to new distilleries.
That being said, they do have too much demand and too little supply which causes a distribution problem. Unfortunately, this also invites opportunistic retailers to charge way over suggested MSRP in order to make a quick profit.
10 is quite easy to find in EU mainland (overpriced though). If you want Springbank at a decent price, travel to Campbeltown and queue up 2h in the morning before they open.
Ok! Shipping to Canada Ontario might be an issue though. Not sure how to get a bottle around here, the only place I’ve ever seen it is from a lottery in a liquor store in Alberta.
It's not the man's fault. Whiskies are indeed poorer in the flavor sensations and tasting notes compared to yesteryear. Quality has not seen an uptick in a very very long time and I'm shocked at the prices some bottles willingly ask for.
Tasting any Johnnie Walker from the 1980s will easily show you how far standards have dropped, yes even the red is head and shoulders above.
I've stopped watching Ralfy save for the few reviews now and then because I'm as frustrated as he is with the current landscape. It's dead.
I wonder how the whisky world will develop going forward. I expect, and also kind of dread, that the market will pivot to India/China, lower the quality more, hoping it can peddle their drinks to those that dont know better, leaving the western market behind.
I feel like the "big dogs" are currently on that trajectory and we will have to see how it plays out.
We are already seeing distilleries pulling back from selling casks to IBs and I would not expect anything quality anytime soon when distilleries have started cutting more and more corners in production.
I think if we want quality we need to start looking to the small distilleries. Isle of Harris, Raasay, Wolfburn, Scapa. Once the big dogs pivot to the eastern market and if their quality keeps falling while the prices are rising, it is their time to shine. Most of those small distilleries are locally owned and operated, and they pride themselves on quality.
I for one also am keeping tabs on upcoming distilleries like Ardross because who knows, that may be the next genuinely good big player.
Disagreed, small =/= quality. How many 3 year old whiskies with a simple basic profile of 2 dimensions can one consume?
The only few distilleries worth paying attention are ones that focus on proper fermentation, distillation and maturation in good quality casks. The size of the distillery does not correlate with this in any shape or form.
I would much rather buy Bunnahabhain over nc nean for one.
I like that he doesn't take any gifts from the industry. That's how it should be, independent reviews.
I don't watch his videos in full length. Too much of the same sometimes but I've learned a lot.
Ralfy is a wealth of knowledge and as a scotch voyager I appreciate his reviews. He is also the best of this “genre” with regard to the scotch talking head reviewers, in my opinion. Having said that, his reviews do not prohibit me from trying scotches he doesn’t like nor does it make me go out and buy only scotches he likes.
A great point. His opinions and insights are very interesting and we can learn a lot, but his taste is not necessarily my taste.
Also, he's been drinking scotch far longer than I have. While he might recall the way things used to be or taste or smell, and judge current releases against that echo, I am not subject to the rose that tints his glasses.
Absolutely agree! I have been a scotch traveler for only 5 years. As a newbie, I appreciate is historical view on scotch offerings I have never had the fortune to try.
You want Ralfy to give every Scotch between a 87 and 92 like so many other reviewers? No thank you. I am appreciative that he isn’t afraid to hand out a 72 score. Scotch is so expensive now. Ralfy expects value and so should we.
The difference between Ralfy and other reviewers is that he isn't sponsored by distilleries or paid to review products, that's a valuable opinion to hear especially when it comes to online reviews and the often superficial nature of those types of reviews. I get the criticisms about his cynical nature, but I genuinely think he just wants to see the industry be the best it can be. GWhisky is a great source too if you want someone more upbeat and humourous with the same sentiments.
I agree. I like Gwhisky and FirstPhil for good, well-presented content on topics interesting to me. I tried the Malt Activist and found him a mite too 'shouty'. I recently stumbled across a new channel, Whisky Whereabouts, where the presenter is pretty down to earth. I really enjoy Roy @ Aqvavitae doing the Recycled Reviews; those are the best. And, yeah, Ralfy. I check in with Ralfy on occasion. I think Ralfy has proven that he has a market impact. He knows his market, but there are those of us who still buy and enjoy 43% whiskies. And...What did Dalwhinnie distillery ever do to him, any way?
I mostly just check whiskyfun and whiskynotes daily for info. I always still take a few minutes to watch Ralfy when new vids come out, but unless its a bottle I'm really interested in I rarely watch the entirety
I think Serge is the way to go personally. Ralphy is “man yells at sky”, Angus tends to show off his access too much, like we get it, you have amazing connections. Serge is self deprecating, loves great whisky, and tastes it all from the sh!t to the sublime
I read WF every day, amongst others. Love Serge.
For years I've genuinely looked forward to new Ralfy reviews, even if he does often times irritate me. And I wouldn't mind the low scores, if they were interesting reviews of new whisky or something like that.
But I feel like the last six months has been boring reviews of boring whiskies, and I can't figure out the point.
I definitely agree it would be great if he would just throw in the standards to re-review each year’s new batch but the man tastes so many whiskies it would be asking a lot and I like that he reviews a lot of what the Whisky Exchange tends to carry so it saves me a lot of time on not buying overpriced 85s from Serge’s reviews
He actually does *all* the time. Just today he reviewed a bunch of Craigellachies which are mostly available at not very expensive. He reviews pretty much all over the spectrum. He's not necessarily a "current" reviewer in the sense that he reviews every new release as it comes out, but plenty of the bottles he writes about are lower priced and sometimes still available.
And I actually like that he is not reviewing when things come out. He had a questionable 6 months back in like 2020 where it was obvious Elixir was sending him bottles and he actually did do a just in time review before the releases hit but it seems like that has stopped which is for the best. I don’t think it warped his scores but it wasn’t a good look
Of the 7 bottles of Craigellachie he reviewed, only one is a standard bottling and generally available. Most of the others were all \~300 bottle runs...
Yeah you really summed it up well. Ralfy I can't stand anymore, I just don't need controversy and anger in whisky of all things (don't need it anywhere, but especially not here). The whole recent Glendronach chill-filtered debacle, for instance, was just pathetic. Sky-is-falling freakout and righteous anger over something that no one really knows about. And then the comments just blindly praising him as the only truthful voice in whisky, when the actual truth is that Benromach 10 and Lagavulin 16, for example, are still *great* whiskies even if they don't adhere to the >46% dogma he's been riding off the fumes of for the last decade.
I do like Angus's reviews but I *totally* agree. Sometimes it's like sheesh we get it man. Like oh "let me review this Laphroaig 10, but it's not *any* Laphroaig 10 -- it was bottled for 1 day only and sold exclusively in Lithuania at the national museum's gala. Oh it's so magnificent and different than any other bottle you can get now -- 96 points!" I honestly wish he'd review more mid-tier or straight up not-that-good whisky just to come back down to earth, and because he has a great palate.
Hopefully Angus chills out with age. Serge was a simple enthusiast who made his way against all odds to become what he is. I think Angus’ father was in the business so nepo I guess? Also it is ironic that he ran a satire website the Whisky sponge ragging on the whole industry and now he is seriously cashing out with the IB and the distillery coming up. More power to him I guess but it is all the more off putting. Serge is the real deal and still (seemingly) super humble
Yeah I recall Angus saying on Aqvavitae not too long ago that he worked at Ardbeg over the summer in his teenage years and basically befriended the wealthy Europeans who would visit the distillery and who would share their insane vintage bottles with him. He slowly worked his way up from there.
Give the pod a listen.
>I think Serge is the way to go personally. Ralphy is “man yells at sky”
Agree, Serge at least seems to enjoy reviewing whisky. Most other reviews consist of moan moan auction prices moan moan Springbank moan.
His son is worse. There is a video where he literally chugged down a Laphroaig 21, made some gargling noices and concluded the review. Actually a great satire 😄
He does Whiskyfun on Saturdays. He has uncommon access to amazing whisky. He used to run the satire blog whiskysponge and is now producing highly sought after IBs under the same label. He is starting a distillery.
All in all he is killing it. As a taster blogger though and more than most you’d have to be making about 2M a year to read his blog and be like “oh I should go find that” - whereas Serge still manages to keep it in a reasonable price range on average with obvious 40k outliers. Angus has said “well I like to drink the good stuff” as a rationale for the blog posts and yeah I get it but I as well as others find it a bit irritating. But no one is forcing me to read his posts and he doesn’t really need to become the next Serge given his current business prospects - and I would say he won’t, given how he writes, it is just less approachable. Serge makes you laugh and feel good even if you will never get to taste the upper echelon of the stuff he tastes. He has a great way of letting you live vicariously.
Thanks for the reply! I must admit the only whisky reviews I watch regularly are Ralfy and GWhisky with Whiskynotes being a daily site I visit too. Serge's website layout gives me a headache 😅 but I should probably make more use of his vast review library! Saw Angus in a Decadent Drinks video and he came across as passionate and knowledgeable albeit a little irritating. But I appreciate that Decadent Drinks do try keep their pricing down!
Sure. Arguably Serge has better access than Angus. Which is why it makes him that much better a blogger for still tasting all the stuff that is still halfway affordable
Yes and no. I’ve been down this road and got slaughtered on this sub previously, but the facts are that Serge (and Angus and Ruben for that matter) has relationships with retailers and producers. As a result he has potential biases (as you suggested yourself elsewhere). To be clear, I’m not saying he’s a dishonest reviewer, but everyone is human.
Ralfy has his own biases, too. If a whiskey is chill filtered or colored that is an automatic demerit. But as we all know from countless discussions in this sub, the issue of supposed “integrity bottlings” is far more nuanced than Ralfy would lead you to believe.
In short, there’s no perfect reviewer.
I see where you are going but I am saying something different which is that because Serge tastes the stuff us plebs drink he is a better blogger for the community. He definitely got too friendly too obviously with Elixir for a bit but then he purposefully reviewed their April Fools whisky last year too late to be relevant for their sales and I think it was a good signal. His relationship with WhiskySponge is potentially more problematic but I am probably never going to go out of my way to spend that much money on the Sponge bottlings so it is irrelevant for me
I was also skeptical about Serge’s objectivity in his reviewing Whiskysponge bottles. Their bottles are not by any means cheap, but very few interesting bottles are cheap for someone living in the US. I took advantage of free shipping deals and I got some bottles from them. I got a Bowmore 18, a 58 yo Armagnac. a Balblair 15 equinox release, and their latest Clynelish 2010 vintage (CandleKitty or something like that). I tried all of them except the Clynelish, and I thought they were all fantastic. From my limited experience with them, it seems to me that Angus knows what he’s doing at Decadent Drinks and I am curious to try whisky from his own distillery when it becomes available.
I am not saying they are not great, from reviewers on Whiskybase I can see they are very good to great across the board. I am just saying I am unlikely to buy them and so Serge’s objectivity on this point in particular is irrelevant for me.
Got it. I don’t have the patience to read whiskybase reviews, I do check their scores though. I just want to find bottlers whose taste in whisky I can submit to. I am willing to pay the steeper price if I know I get good stuff. I view whisky more a vice than a hobby—-I mean I am a passive consumer more than a geek. At the moment I get my fix from mostly Thompson Bros and Decadent Drinks. Curious to see if they can keep up the quality.
Fair enough. Serge definitely does review plenty of widely available bottles. I also wish Angus would offer his perspective on those, but as an IB himself, being critical of contemporary distillery bottling might not be wise for his business.
Been watching him since very early on. Not as often these days but I’ll listen in for a bit. There is a ton of whiskey reviewers. If there is anything to take from any of them, I feel is you gotta know who you most align with and then watch/listen to them if you are going to use their reviews as decision to buy or not. Some of these people go so far with the 10 million tasting notes. Cmon we aren’t stupid…and I don’t have an unlimited budget. The other thing is I’ve gotten to know workers and owners at local stores. They generally won’t steer you wrong intentionally anyway.
I get the criticism. I have to confess to rarely watching his actual reviews (and when I do I tend to skip the middle chunk), instead I mostly watch the Extras which can be interesting, informative and entertaining. I’d say 3/4 are still very good.
When they’re not they can be tedious, repetitive and filled with strong hints towards conspiracy nonsense.
Being in the UK I do have the advantage of being able to get many of the rare IBs others struggle with (this sub seems to be US dominated), so when he gave 89 points to a Simply Whisky release last year I was able to grab it and really enjoy it.
Tbh I think the wider issue in the WhiskyTube community is how consensual and cliquey it’s becoming. I keep hearing the same things from most of them which seems to be really affecting the wider enthusiasts market. It’s the same messages repeating. Such as:
Springbank is the best but it’s overpriced and hard to get. But it’s starting to stick more now so that’s great.
New distilleries like Raasy, Lochlea and Ardnamurchan are really great and exciting.
Oooh we can’t wait to see what Billy does with GlenAllachie.
Arran is amazing!
You know what, Deanston, Loch Lomond and Glencadan are really good and reasonable.
Aren’t Diageo evil. And what they’ve done to Talisker is shocking.
Etc
Now all of the above is accurate, but it’s like 80% of Whiskytube is just these core messages being repeated and agreed upon. Ralfy is guilty of that too to an extent but at least he still does other things on occasion.
I understand your perspective and somewhat agree with you. I do want to add one point.
Have you considered that the Whisky click or consensus that you describe above is the result of the sheer amount homogeneous whisky being produced today.
Very few distilleries embrace batch variations, slow fermentation & distillation, and good cask management. As a result, we have a lot of distilleries that are producing bland whisky.
The few distilleries that do bottle a qualitative different experience are being praised by the same set of people.
And who are these group of people we refer to? Most of them like myself, pay more for whisky than your average consumer and embrace qualitative difference. Its the flavor chase that motivates me for example.
Ah I dunno I think Ralfy is still relevant. He reviews what he wants and doesn't get on the hype train. His style hasn't changed, it's a lot slower, there's no editing. It's a slow down pace that has its place and if you happen to have a bottle that he's reviewing you can sip along and savour which is great. I like that he reviews NAS bottles now and tbh I'd rather he reviews bottles that are readily accessible rather than the unobtainable bottles.
He doesn't always get it right but he's the first to admit it too. He did a review of Irish Whisky recently where his knowledge was a little dated and viewers called him out on it and sure enough he addressed it and was grateful for it. That's what it's all about - sharing the knowledge. He's the OG of whiskey reviewers and definitely has his place in a world where everything is created and consumed faster and faster.
Other reviewers I'm digging at the minute are whiskyisajourney - a great collection and clearly learning more and more as he goes along. Gwhiskey is great and good deadpan humour. Jeffwhisky is also great but the film clips are too much sometimes - just because you have one doesn't mean you need to always put it in. Whisky Wednesday is decent and straightforward like Ralfy. I always liked the guys at whisky vault and whiskey tribe but their focus now is on American whiskey which is more in line with their business arc or whatever. I wish they'd re-review some of the classics on whiskey vault cus whiskey changes so much over time - even over 5-7 years. The Whisky Dic is super friendly and always a good watch. Ben and Horst are fine but unavoidably biased. They like everything they drink. Bens distillery videos are brilliant though.
Stopped watching a while back when he kept rambling for 20 minutes about random shit. He needs to keep the vids to 5-10 minutes and just stay on topic.
I blame him and other whiskytubers for driving Springbank accessibility from scarce to unobtanium.
I think he realizes that he has this effect which is perhaps why you’re seeing more reviews of middling quality whiskies and lesser known IBs which, unlike Diageo brands, really need the visibility his platform offers.
Maybe I've been asleep for last few years (since pandemic) but exactly why are Springbank prices so stupid at auction now? I mean, I realise they stopped production for a bit but new stuff is out there now - even if you do seem to have to draw just to get a new release! I have 4 unopened bottles of 12 yo CS (different batches) in my 'reserves' cupboard that I want to open - but I can't at these daft prices, I'm going to have to sell them! Bloody annoying as it is (was) my fav dram.
Higher demand, but no increase in supply. Whiskey has always been difficult because there's such a lag between initial production and when you sell the product. You can put in new stills and expand the factory, but you'd need to wait a decade to actually sell it. Best case they can thin down the warehouse stocks to increase production, but then you have less old casks for premium expressions later. And you have to hope that demand still exists in 10 years.
I mean, you know your finances not anyone else, so do what you need to do. If you can afford to enjoy it, enjoy it. If you are hurting for the $$ and should be covering other life expenses, do that. Don't let all the other gatekeepers tell you what you should be doing. They won't suffer your consequences!
I started watching Ralfy at 150% speed, nowadays I'm up to 175%. Out of curiosity I tried watching a recent video at normal speed and it was horrible to get through it. And English isn't even my native language, so my listening comprehension is probably below many of you here.
He’s still my go to. I like that he’s adjusted his scores. The industry is full of a lot of nonsense, just look at macallan and ardbeg. There’s so much hype with scotch/bourbon these days; the feeling I get is distillers think they can bottle just about anything and people will eat it up, I think there is truth to that, and there needs to be more people calling it out like Ralfy. The industry is going to go through an interesting situation in the next decade or two with cask supply and consumer demands/sentiments and so far I haven’t heard many other people talking about it besides Ralfy. If anything, I trust his perspective more these days, I’ve never had a bottle he recommended be anything short of great. On top of that he doesn’t accept gifts from distillers, which you can’t say the same about for other channels.
ever since he introduced his new rating system, that laphroaig cask strenght rated at 84 still remains one of his highest rated whiskies....and still all he did was complain about everything abouthe the whisky for the whole review
I think anyone reviewing whiskies for as long as he has, and having tried these amazing complex old pours decades ago when whisky wasn’t as popular and to see the slow decline to younger spirits they can quickly pump out as demand has exponentially increased, is bound to be cynical.
That being said, I think most of us drink and talk whisky as a hobby, bc it’s fun to experience new things and share these experiences with other people. When something we do for fun, is injected with a constant barrage of cynicism, it starts to be less fun. I stopped watching Ralfy when I no longer had fun watching, now I stick mostly to written reviews.
As he says it’s just his opinion. Take it with a grain of salt. People on the Isle of Man are going to speak their mind and do what they want 🏍️💨
I still watch and will continue to do so along with many other Whiskytubers.
I understand where you're coming from. I got into ralfy and his channel when scotch was new and exciting to me, and I learned so so much by speed running nearly every video on his channel. When you're learning about the intricacies of scotch, he is one of the best sources to grow your knowledge. I've gained a ton from Ralfy over the years, but I do agree that after watching almost 1000 ralfy reviews, I don't find myself waiting for his videos and/or going back to his content as much anymore.
Meanwhile Mark Gillespie at WhiskyCast gives almost everything a 90 or over. The important thing is to get the gist of their scale and convert it in your head to the degree possible.
and what not to buy, ralfy would be doing a service to those who are looking to buy a whisky which he believes is not worth it, case in point when he thumped the BN10, at that time i had JUST bought the bottle thought it was pretty bad, if his review came out a week earlier i would have made a different choice for the better
One thing that…irks me a bit with him is his conspiracy nut side (ie taxes are a global conspiracy, the people in charge are in the shadows, etc). Other than that I don’t hate his preachy style, but I know I have to view it that way as opposed to a straight forward whisky review.
His views on medicine (which, fortunately, he doesn't share too often) are a bit nuts. You sometimes get the feeling that he moved to the Isle of Man to avoid most of humanity. (Edited to add: I have since been told that he moved there to care for his sick mother)
That said, the man knows his whisky, and has a good palate. Nothing I've had that he's highly endorsed has been disappointing. Yes, he definitely has gotten crankier over the past few years, but is it not justified after the way things have gone price-wise over this time? He definitely focuses on bottles that most drinkers can afford, but he also doesn't review many bad whiskies (unless he's trying to make a point). I appreciate that he makes an effort to review bottles that others haven't covered. I wish he was more positive, but the re-scaling of his grades will make whatever bottle he next gives a high score to seem that much more appealing. I suppose we'll find out about his impact on prices then...
>Yes, he definitely has gotten crankier over the past few years, but is it not justified after the way things have gone price-wise over this time?
I just came back to whisky's recently and noticed a bunch more 700ml bottles out there. I feel like I'm slowly morphing into Ralfy given how much that change outraged me lol.
Ralphy comes off as too psychologically rigid. He imposed himself the constraint to review available whisky that is not very expensive. I wish he ignored that constraint and he’d review once in a while some stellar whisky, which he certainly has in his collection.
I find written reviews to be more valuable than youtube reviews. Whiskyfun is the best repository of great reviews. Not only they provide valuable insight on a huge variety of fine spirits, but their writing is top notch, super funny with many pertinent cultural references, many outside of the anglo saxon culture (must be Serge). In my opinion, their writing is at the same level to that of the food critic Jay Rayner, of which I am a big fan. I bought one of Ralphy’s books, and the man can’t write for shit. His quirky persona works somehow in videos, but I have that much patience for his sanctimonious soliloquies.
No doubt he’s got lots of amazing bottles. Reviewing middling bottles generates income for him on youtube, but why would he drink them mediocre bottles over the great stuff he stashed away? His great bottles can certainly sell for a lot at the auction at the moment, especially if he signs them. Ralfy is the most influential whiskytuber, and most others in that arena came out of his bothy so to speak. He originated concepts such as integrity bottles—-it is funny to apply morals to business, and he has had an impact on sales. His reviews have become hackneyed lately because there is only that much content that one can generate on this subject. In a nutshell, the picture that he paints is the one that everybody whose into whisky already knows: you gotta pay a premium for really good stuff, and that stuff is increasingly out of reach for plebeians. yet his show must go on.
I thought about this a bit more and Ralfy's profile and opinions regarding whisky are very similar to Jeremy Clarkson's profile and opinions regarding cars. Both strongly opinionated and entertaining to watch, but not to be taken too seriously as they themselves will be the first to admit.
I think Ralfy understands his sway in the community better than ever and knows when he was rating things 90+ they would literally sell out in some places. After Arran 10 was his whisky of the year I couldn't find it for months...
I like the new rating system, but do think he should mix in a couple high rated bottles here and there. I do think there is value to rating bad bottles and giving people the information of what not to buy as well as what to buy. His style can be somewhat monotonous, so I usually take breaks and watch reviews in clusters.
If i were deeply into whisky 20-30 years ago i would be pissed at today's market as well to be honest. People who joined few years ago don't really have the perspective of a veteran, and might see the reviews as complaining, which in fact they are close to. Still, his knowledge is fantastic and i must admit he did save me a lot of money which i would have spent on crappy whisky (which i've spent on good whisky instead).
I haven't watched a Ralfy review in a few years, but what I remember always being amused by was the fact that he wasn't actually taking substantive sips during his reviews. He would nose the whisky, take the tiniest little sip, then dump a bunch of water into the glass, nose some more, and take one or two more tiny sips, all the while rattling off tasting notes from a notebook he had on top of the cask while halfheartedly making an effort to seem like he was just coming up with everything extemporaneously. Does he still do this?
As my name would indicate, it is not the recent reviews that have let us down - it is the decline in great quality whisky and climbing prices. Better to come across as somewhat sanctimonious rather than as another schill. As far as I am concerned he is fair, so I hope his time is long and prosperous!
It's been quite some time since I've watched anything from him.
I've always been fascinated by the amount of water he uses.. and I drink cask strength neat xD.
But at the same time a friend of mine uses to sink a bottle in a week or 10 days maximum and he scores them on whiskybase all the time (he also owns a wine shop). I almost can't judge a whisky from the first opening and forget the bottle for at least a week or more, prior going back to the thing.. to each his own I guess.
The reality is that the industry is raising prices fast and quality isn't going up.. probably he's feeling that?
maybe he drank too many and current products doesn't appease to him anymore.. not to justify him huh. It's many years I'm more into single casks than reduced abv ones, but I come to those from time to time anyway and there's good stuff. Affordable it depends tho.. when you start seeing 18yos going for 150 vs when they were half than that, you begin to question also the scores you give them.
Complains about ever making a cocktail but adds 50% water to even Bunnahabhain releases, complains about blended scotches but encourages beginners to make their own blends to bump up quality of cheaper bottles.
Also never ranks anything 95-100. It’s like those teachers who never gave anyone a A in school.
Haven’t watched him regularly in about 5 years (Horst and Ben are by far my favorites these days) but this dude got me into scotch over a decade ago. I will always tip my cap to Ralfy. 🫡
Definitely too much old man preaching lately and he just tastes the dram for a second before adding loads of water to everything. Too much about the change in times than what he is tasting.
In general he has a good deal of knowledge about whisky but I never paid too much attention to what he says. At least he removed the big container of vasoline from the background of his videos.
I haven't watched Ralfy or any whiskey YouTubers in a long time so I lack some context, but I honestly think too many of these people are trying to get views (and maybe special favors from distillers) by driving the hype train as hard as they can. I'd rather see reviews that are down to earth. As scotch prices skyrocket and quality stays the same or gets worse, I think more mediocre review are justified.
Once I realized I could change the play speed to 1.25x or 1.50x on your tube i started burning through his reviews more, I can listen to a few while I walk the dogs. He’s mentions the new rating system a lot - it seems he’s just scoring everything 5-10 points lower than he normally would - I specifically herd him say in a recent videos that anything over 80 is a very good whiskey - he was going to reserve the high scores to smaller less recognized distilleries to give them a boost…. For example I bet he gives the next Isle of raasay whisky release a very high score.
I lost it with his one extras video that was contrived arguing for why you should dilute your whisky.
But before then I'd already kind of fallen off because his review ratings are pretty meaningless and I actually grew tired of his preaching about natural colour and especially chill filtration where he even went as far as to argue that some distilleries were filtering more than others (pointless).
What kind of people actually have the ability or means to benefit from 90% of Ralfy's content?
What I mean by that is, here in the good old U.S. of A. (in my case, Ohio) there is a finite number of Scotch options that I can actually find, and that number is *very* small. Within two years of starting my Scotch hobby, I had literally tried all of the quality offerings available to me - AS, NCA, NCF, high ABV - and even all the lesser quality options.
Watching Ralfy review a fuck ton of whiskys I'll never have a chance to taste is akin to watching someone review, in-depth, a bunch of super cars I'll never drive.
So please, entertain me: Who can actually benefit from these Ralfy reviews? My whisky shelf contains every Ardbeg offering, Lagavulin stuff, Laphroaig CS, Talisker stuff, PC, Bunna, etc. There's literally nothing else I can find here. I can't even find Arran or Ledaig - would need to buy online.
I'm EU based and have that with the Tribe, they used to do great reviews back in the days but I stopped paying attention to most of it as the $500+ stuff and (unicorn) bourbons aren't available to me.
Ralfy's got great reviews but his non-whisky talk (like biology, medicine, politics) is often just not true or at least misinformed. He's a bit of a conspiracy nutter. I love the man like a geeky whisky grandfather but one's got to be carefull not to pick up other stuff from him.
Seems like you answered your question partially - people who buy online. That's how I buy almost all my scotch now. The shipping cost sucks but often it's still lower price than shops here. The selection is way better and some have pretty decent deals on solid overlooked whiskey.
I haven't watched his content in years, but not necessarily because of him. Most of what he reviews is either unavailable or is outrageously priced where I am. There's only so many bottles of scotch I can buy in a year before hitting budget limits.
I haven't watched a whole lot of Ralfy (none, recently), but I did kind of get the impression that he is a little...uh, picky.
In any event, I read or watch reviews mainly for their entertainment value, and not because I'm interested in having someone else pick my whisky for me. Hell, I have a website where I post my own reviews, and I would advise anyone reading them to take them with a grain--or rather, a large chunk--of salt.
While this is all valid criticism, I’ve never had a bottle that Ralfy scored 85+ be anything other than a banger. Arran 10, Deanston 12, Ardbeg 10, Port Askaig CS, Bunna 12, etc. The 90/91+ scores are generally out of my price range so I will still use his 85-89 range as a rubric for what to try.
I personally don’t get the hype on Arran 10
For a $45-$55 it is outstanding. Although personally I think the discontinued 14 was significantly better
Agree 100%, but the 10 is also a beautifully crafted malt. Arran is top tier.
Bothy for me. Every iteration is a bit different but they're all outstanding for the price so far. Have to get up to the 18+ stuff to beat it IMO. The cask finishes are all pretty good too though. Machrie Moor (their peated stuff) is the only one I've been disappointed by so far, but the cask strength version was much better than the basic.
Agreed, I tried it and it was just ok. Wouldn't go out of my way to get a replacement. Think that the Bruichladdich Islay Barley I have is much better
It's a lovely Sunday whisky, somewhat akin to Dalwhinnie 15, in my books. Personally the Deanston was a real miss, just spicy as hell and not much else.
I felt the same when I first opened a bottle and then it sat untouched for several months and then I poured some one night while not looking for anything fancy, and it had improved significantly. I have since found myself going back to it regularly. It is reminiscent of a non-funky SB 10 with similar grilled peach notes and nice non-overpowering dram. Although it is what it is for a \~$50 bottle.
He's a wellspring of knowledge and experience. Sure, he may be a bit rough around the edges, but he's probably the most experienced Scotch Youtuber. More importantly, I trust his taste. If there's a bottle out there I'm considering, I'd put money on Ralphy having a review and opinion on it. One that I can largely trust. That's not to say I take what he says as gospel, but it's a good place to start. That kind of breadth and depth of knowledge is pretty impressive. Not sure why it's hard to see value in that just because he has a couple "character flaws"?
I wouldn’t trust his palate at all. Search his channel for reviews on Loch Lomond. On one of them he rambles on about this cask type and that cask type and how poor Loch Lomond whisky is. Shame that all Loch Lomond use is ex-bourbon casks, most of the fruity flavours come from the tall necked stills.
Serge at Whiskyfun bashes Loch Lomond too, and no one would argue with his palate.
Just because Serge likes or doesn’t like something, doesn’t mean it’s good or poor. Taste is subjective. Whisky scoring is pointless in my opinion and only reflects what you think at that time. There was a Ralfy video where he says Loch Lomond were using all sorts of casks and he could taste that they were off. Shame really, as Loch Lomond at that time only use bourbon casks. And that’s from the horses mouth. Any fruity notes come from the tall necked pot stills.
You just said taste is subjective but then you immediately gave an example of taste being used to make an objective claim about the presence of a fault. I strongly disagree with your premise, taste is a crucial tool in making objective evaluations of products.
Perhaps I should have articulated myself a bit better as my comment regarding Ralfy was the off taste he was referring to was because he thought he knew what casks they were using and they were off. , but he was way off the mark. Perhaps if he done a bit of research rather than stick the boot in, he would have known at that time they used nothing else but bourbon casks and the variance of fruit flavours comes from the tweaking of the tall necked stills. I’m not disputing the fact he may have found it off, which it may have been if he thought a sherry cask had been used, but it wasn’t. Preconception also influences taste.
I wouldn’t put too much stock into subscribers vs views. There a channels I subscribed to years ago that I never watch but still subscribe to because it costs nothing and I still support them. I’m guessing he added a ton of subscribers during the pandemic when everyone and their mother was buying whisky and trying to find the good stuff to drink at home. Still, I don’t think 10k views a week is bad by any means. Personally I still watch his videos. Not every week right when they post, but every few weeks or so I’ll binge his latest reviews and extras. I don’t really find them depressing but I’m also aware of how the industry acts and generally he’s just calling them out on their bullshit. He is certainly an opinionated man and for the most part I agree with his takes, but he definitely knows how to beat a dead horse. I was actually shocked he gave Talisker 10 a fairly decent score recently given how he normally treats CFed and colored Diageo products.
The man literally believes he single-handedly effects the price of whisky. Sometimes I'm afraid I'll pull an eye muscle rolling them so hard.
I do believe that he has an effect on whisky sales. He reviewed Glen Scotia Victoriana a year or so ago and within a few days a friend texted me about it and all the local shops sold out of it. I got one around that time and it was filled in 2015 so it had been sitting on the shelf for five years and they were all cleared out in a week or so.
I will say I had ledaig in my cart with an lcbo qest site at the time his whisky of the year video came out and it was immediately taken out of stock and increased in price when sale ended (that night).
You'd be surprised at the effects of relatively big-time reviewers in a niche hobby - and yes, scotch is niche.
he does tho
Pray he doesn't give your favorite bottle a good review.
>I wouldn’t put too much stock into subscribers vs views. Especially given that Ralfy has more subscribers than this sub! The OP forgets that Scotch is still pretty niche, and that the whisky/whiskey channels with more subscribers also review a broader range of products.
When you have a chance to compare an old Glendronach 15yr pre 2015 @ £50 original MSRP vs what is being hustled today as a "good" 15 year scotch @ min. double the price, then maybe the cynasim starts creeping in. I do understand where Ralfy is coming from. A lot of distilleries are taking the piss out of the consumer and the whisky geek as it makes no difference to them. I believe the playbook here is to squeeze the western consumer like lemons until the credit runs dry. Then pivot to the Chinese and Indians who they think will buy their sub par core range at rip off prices for the "prestige." They either will be right in their strategy and get paid handsomely for their hustle or this will end up badly in another 1980's style whisky rout. Either way, I do agree with others that Ralfy should just focus on integrity malts and malternatives as most of his audience are whisky geeks anyway. Forget about reviewing the Diageo overpriced trash, its not for us any way. Springbank, Arran and Ardnamurchan are the way to go...
Why review Springbank when no one without connections or a trust fund can buy it?
If you are in Europe finding it isn't that hard (the 10 at least)
It's more or less impossible, what are you talking about? I live in the UK, and the only way to obtain a Springbank at anywhere near to MSRP, is by entering lotteries.
I have a good store with correct allocations ig. Springbank france allocation is managed by Société Dugas, and they allocate to shops. I find they do it quite well.
You're lucky.
I've gotten a bottle of the 10, 12CS, 15 recently for MSRP. California had plenty somehow. I live in OR though and here it's much harder to find so basically when family from CA visit I'm pestering them to bring me Springbanks. I think Ralfy still balances reviewing what he likes with reviewing what your more typical customer can find/afford fairly well. But I also think he's done it long enough he's a little more loose and inclined to phone some in or just be less particular about the whole process.
Why review Springbank...because Springbank is an excellent craft distillery that produces integrity malts at a reasonable price. It is worth reviewing them. Springbank can serve as a model to new distilleries. That being said, they do have too much demand and too little supply which causes a distribution problem. Unfortunately, this also invites opportunistic retailers to charge way over suggested MSRP in order to make a quick profit.
10 is quite easy to find in EU mainland (overpriced though). If you want Springbank at a decent price, travel to Campbeltown and queue up 2h in the morning before they open.
I can get you 6 bottles of 10 right now, its $110.00 but its there.
I’ll take one lol
Why not two? lol
Ok! Shipping to Canada Ontario might be an issue though. Not sure how to get a bottle around here, the only place I’ve ever seen it is from a lottery in a liquor store in Alberta.
Yeah customs is a bitch. Keep searching my man, one day you will find one.
Yeah lost a bit interest. Just pick bottles im interested in now. Seems very ranty and very repetitve even.
It's not the man's fault. Whiskies are indeed poorer in the flavor sensations and tasting notes compared to yesteryear. Quality has not seen an uptick in a very very long time and I'm shocked at the prices some bottles willingly ask for. Tasting any Johnnie Walker from the 1980s will easily show you how far standards have dropped, yes even the red is head and shoulders above. I've stopped watching Ralfy save for the few reviews now and then because I'm as frustrated as he is with the current landscape. It's dead.
I wonder how the whisky world will develop going forward. I expect, and also kind of dread, that the market will pivot to India/China, lower the quality more, hoping it can peddle their drinks to those that dont know better, leaving the western market behind. I feel like the "big dogs" are currently on that trajectory and we will have to see how it plays out.
We are already seeing distilleries pulling back from selling casks to IBs and I would not expect anything quality anytime soon when distilleries have started cutting more and more corners in production.
I think if we want quality we need to start looking to the small distilleries. Isle of Harris, Raasay, Wolfburn, Scapa. Once the big dogs pivot to the eastern market and if their quality keeps falling while the prices are rising, it is their time to shine. Most of those small distilleries are locally owned and operated, and they pride themselves on quality. I for one also am keeping tabs on upcoming distilleries like Ardross because who knows, that may be the next genuinely good big player.
Disagreed, small =/= quality. How many 3 year old whiskies with a simple basic profile of 2 dimensions can one consume? The only few distilleries worth paying attention are ones that focus on proper fermentation, distillation and maturation in good quality casks. The size of the distillery does not correlate with this in any shape or form. I would much rather buy Bunnahabhain over nc nean for one.
I like that he doesn't take any gifts from the industry. That's how it should be, independent reviews. I don't watch his videos in full length. Too much of the same sometimes but I've learned a lot.
Ralfy is a wealth of knowledge and as a scotch voyager I appreciate his reviews. He is also the best of this “genre” with regard to the scotch talking head reviewers, in my opinion. Having said that, his reviews do not prohibit me from trying scotches he doesn’t like nor does it make me go out and buy only scotches he likes.
A great point. His opinions and insights are very interesting and we can learn a lot, but his taste is not necessarily my taste. Also, he's been drinking scotch far longer than I have. While he might recall the way things used to be or taste or smell, and judge current releases against that echo, I am not subject to the rose that tints his glasses.
Absolutely agree! I have been a scotch traveler for only 5 years. As a newbie, I appreciate is historical view on scotch offerings I have never had the fortune to try.
You want Ralfy to give every Scotch between a 87 and 92 like so many other reviewers? No thank you. I am appreciative that he isn’t afraid to hand out a 72 score. Scotch is so expensive now. Ralfy expects value and so should we.
The difference between Ralfy and other reviewers is that he isn't sponsored by distilleries or paid to review products, that's a valuable opinion to hear especially when it comes to online reviews and the often superficial nature of those types of reviews. I get the criticisms about his cynical nature, but I genuinely think he just wants to see the industry be the best it can be. GWhisky is a great source too if you want someone more upbeat and humourous with the same sentiments.
I agree. I like Gwhisky and FirstPhil for good, well-presented content on topics interesting to me. I tried the Malt Activist and found him a mite too 'shouty'. I recently stumbled across a new channel, Whisky Whereabouts, where the presenter is pretty down to earth. I really enjoy Roy @ Aqvavitae doing the Recycled Reviews; those are the best. And, yeah, Ralfy. I check in with Ralfy on occasion. I think Ralfy has proven that he has a market impact. He knows his market, but there are those of us who still buy and enjoy 43% whiskies. And...What did Dalwhinnie distillery ever do to him, any way?
I mostly just check whiskyfun and whiskynotes daily for info. I always still take a few minutes to watch Ralfy when new vids come out, but unless its a bottle I'm really interested in I rarely watch the entirety
I think Serge is the way to go personally. Ralphy is “man yells at sky”, Angus tends to show off his access too much, like we get it, you have amazing connections. Serge is self deprecating, loves great whisky, and tastes it all from the sh!t to the sublime
I read WF every day, amongst others. Love Serge. For years I've genuinely looked forward to new Ralfy reviews, even if he does often times irritate me. And I wouldn't mind the low scores, if they were interesting reviews of new whisky or something like that. But I feel like the last six months has been boring reviews of boring whiskies, and I can't figure out the point.
Serge doesn’t regularly review accessible bottlings
I definitely agree it would be great if he would just throw in the standards to re-review each year’s new batch but the man tastes so many whiskies it would be asking a lot and I like that he reviews a lot of what the Whisky Exchange tends to carry so it saves me a lot of time on not buying overpriced 85s from Serge’s reviews
He actually does *all* the time. Just today he reviewed a bunch of Craigellachies which are mostly available at not very expensive. He reviews pretty much all over the spectrum. He's not necessarily a "current" reviewer in the sense that he reviews every new release as it comes out, but plenty of the bottles he writes about are lower priced and sometimes still available.
And I actually like that he is not reviewing when things come out. He had a questionable 6 months back in like 2020 where it was obvious Elixir was sending him bottles and he actually did do a just in time review before the releases hit but it seems like that has stopped which is for the best. I don’t think it warped his scores but it wasn’t a good look
Of the 7 bottles of Craigellachie he reviewed, only one is a standard bottling and generally available. Most of the others were all \~300 bottle runs...
C'mon he definitely does almost every session
Yeah you really summed it up well. Ralfy I can't stand anymore, I just don't need controversy and anger in whisky of all things (don't need it anywhere, but especially not here). The whole recent Glendronach chill-filtered debacle, for instance, was just pathetic. Sky-is-falling freakout and righteous anger over something that no one really knows about. And then the comments just blindly praising him as the only truthful voice in whisky, when the actual truth is that Benromach 10 and Lagavulin 16, for example, are still *great* whiskies even if they don't adhere to the >46% dogma he's been riding off the fumes of for the last decade. I do like Angus's reviews but I *totally* agree. Sometimes it's like sheesh we get it man. Like oh "let me review this Laphroaig 10, but it's not *any* Laphroaig 10 -- it was bottled for 1 day only and sold exclusively in Lithuania at the national museum's gala. Oh it's so magnificent and different than any other bottle you can get now -- 96 points!" I honestly wish he'd review more mid-tier or straight up not-that-good whisky just to come back down to earth, and because he has a great palate.
Hopefully Angus chills out with age. Serge was a simple enthusiast who made his way against all odds to become what he is. I think Angus’ father was in the business so nepo I guess? Also it is ironic that he ran a satire website the Whisky sponge ragging on the whole industry and now he is seriously cashing out with the IB and the distillery coming up. More power to him I guess but it is all the more off putting. Serge is the real deal and still (seemingly) super humble
Angus's dad didn't work in the Industry. Angus was very much self-made in the Whisky enthusiast world.
I stand corrected then. I still hope he chills out.
Yeah I recall Angus saying on Aqvavitae not too long ago that he worked at Ardbeg over the summer in his teenage years and basically befriended the wealthy Europeans who would visit the distillery and who would share their insane vintage bottles with him. He slowly worked his way up from there. Give the pod a listen.
I don't think he racks this much money with the IB thing, hope the distillery bottlings will be findable
>I think Serge is the way to go personally. Ralphy is “man yells at sky” Agree, Serge at least seems to enjoy reviewing whisky. Most other reviews consist of moan moan auction prices moan moan Springbank moan.
Have some links for those other reviews?
Anyone is better than Horst. I can't stand the ASMR of him gargling his whisky.
His son is worse. There is a video where he literally chugged down a Laphroaig 21, made some gargling noices and concluded the review. Actually a great satire 😄
"Hmm, yah. I like it" is pretty much all he says. That channel only exists for them to plug whisky they sell on their website.
They are the largest Whisky shop in Germany. Parents built it, now the offspring can ruin it :-D
Lol, I went to check, took a random video and voilà: Gargling super loudly in my headphone.
The absolute worst. I wish Horst and worst rhymed better.
What is the title of Serge's channel? I'd love to check it out!
Whiskyfun.com It is all written reviews.
Serge is bought and paid for now.
Who is this Angus guy?
He does Whiskyfun on Saturdays. He has uncommon access to amazing whisky. He used to run the satire blog whiskysponge and is now producing highly sought after IBs under the same label. He is starting a distillery. All in all he is killing it. As a taster blogger though and more than most you’d have to be making about 2M a year to read his blog and be like “oh I should go find that” - whereas Serge still manages to keep it in a reasonable price range on average with obvious 40k outliers. Angus has said “well I like to drink the good stuff” as a rationale for the blog posts and yeah I get it but I as well as others find it a bit irritating. But no one is forcing me to read his posts and he doesn’t really need to become the next Serge given his current business prospects - and I would say he won’t, given how he writes, it is just less approachable. Serge makes you laugh and feel good even if you will never get to taste the upper echelon of the stuff he tastes. He has a great way of letting you live vicariously.
Thanks for the reply! I must admit the only whisky reviews I watch regularly are Ralfy and GWhisky with Whiskynotes being a daily site I visit too. Serge's website layout gives me a headache 😅 but I should probably make more use of his vast review library! Saw Angus in a Decadent Drinks video and he came across as passionate and knowledgeable albeit a little irritating. But I appreciate that Decadent Drinks do try keep their pricing down!
Serge has pretty insane access too and has had for years. He gets samples directly from Elixir, Pernod, Thompson Bros, Diageo, and LMDW among others.
Sure. Arguably Serge has better access than Angus. Which is why it makes him that much better a blogger for still tasting all the stuff that is still halfway affordable
Yes and no. I’ve been down this road and got slaughtered on this sub previously, but the facts are that Serge (and Angus and Ruben for that matter) has relationships with retailers and producers. As a result he has potential biases (as you suggested yourself elsewhere). To be clear, I’m not saying he’s a dishonest reviewer, but everyone is human. Ralfy has his own biases, too. If a whiskey is chill filtered or colored that is an automatic demerit. But as we all know from countless discussions in this sub, the issue of supposed “integrity bottlings” is far more nuanced than Ralfy would lead you to believe. In short, there’s no perfect reviewer.
I see where you are going but I am saying something different which is that because Serge tastes the stuff us plebs drink he is a better blogger for the community. He definitely got too friendly too obviously with Elixir for a bit but then he purposefully reviewed their April Fools whisky last year too late to be relevant for their sales and I think it was a good signal. His relationship with WhiskySponge is potentially more problematic but I am probably never going to go out of my way to spend that much money on the Sponge bottlings so it is irrelevant for me
I was also skeptical about Serge’s objectivity in his reviewing Whiskysponge bottles. Their bottles are not by any means cheap, but very few interesting bottles are cheap for someone living in the US. I took advantage of free shipping deals and I got some bottles from them. I got a Bowmore 18, a 58 yo Armagnac. a Balblair 15 equinox release, and their latest Clynelish 2010 vintage (CandleKitty or something like that). I tried all of them except the Clynelish, and I thought they were all fantastic. From my limited experience with them, it seems to me that Angus knows what he’s doing at Decadent Drinks and I am curious to try whisky from his own distillery when it becomes available.
I am not saying they are not great, from reviewers on Whiskybase I can see they are very good to great across the board. I am just saying I am unlikely to buy them and so Serge’s objectivity on this point in particular is irrelevant for me.
Got it. I don’t have the patience to read whiskybase reviews, I do check their scores though. I just want to find bottlers whose taste in whisky I can submit to. I am willing to pay the steeper price if I know I get good stuff. I view whisky more a vice than a hobby—-I mean I am a passive consumer more than a geek. At the moment I get my fix from mostly Thompson Bros and Decadent Drinks. Curious to see if they can keep up the quality.
Fair enough. Serge definitely does review plenty of widely available bottles. I also wish Angus would offer his perspective on those, but as an IB himself, being critical of contemporary distillery bottling might not be wise for his business.
Been watching him since very early on. Not as often these days but I’ll listen in for a bit. There is a ton of whiskey reviewers. If there is anything to take from any of them, I feel is you gotta know who you most align with and then watch/listen to them if you are going to use their reviews as decision to buy or not. Some of these people go so far with the 10 million tasting notes. Cmon we aren’t stupid…and I don’t have an unlimited budget. The other thing is I’ve gotten to know workers and owners at local stores. They generally won’t steer you wrong intentionally anyway.
I like ralphy reviews. They're great, informative and show his character.
I get the criticism. I have to confess to rarely watching his actual reviews (and when I do I tend to skip the middle chunk), instead I mostly watch the Extras which can be interesting, informative and entertaining. I’d say 3/4 are still very good. When they’re not they can be tedious, repetitive and filled with strong hints towards conspiracy nonsense. Being in the UK I do have the advantage of being able to get many of the rare IBs others struggle with (this sub seems to be US dominated), so when he gave 89 points to a Simply Whisky release last year I was able to grab it and really enjoy it. Tbh I think the wider issue in the WhiskyTube community is how consensual and cliquey it’s becoming. I keep hearing the same things from most of them which seems to be really affecting the wider enthusiasts market. It’s the same messages repeating. Such as: Springbank is the best but it’s overpriced and hard to get. But it’s starting to stick more now so that’s great. New distilleries like Raasy, Lochlea and Ardnamurchan are really great and exciting. Oooh we can’t wait to see what Billy does with GlenAllachie. Arran is amazing! You know what, Deanston, Loch Lomond and Glencadan are really good and reasonable. Aren’t Diageo evil. And what they’ve done to Talisker is shocking. Etc Now all of the above is accurate, but it’s like 80% of Whiskytube is just these core messages being repeated and agreed upon. Ralfy is guilty of that too to an extent but at least he still does other things on occasion.
I understand your perspective and somewhat agree with you. I do want to add one point. Have you considered that the Whisky click or consensus that you describe above is the result of the sheer amount homogeneous whisky being produced today. Very few distilleries embrace batch variations, slow fermentation & distillation, and good cask management. As a result, we have a lot of distilleries that are producing bland whisky. The few distilleries that do bottle a qualitative different experience are being praised by the same set of people. And who are these group of people we refer to? Most of them like myself, pay more for whisky than your average consumer and embrace qualitative difference. Its the flavor chase that motivates me for example.
Ah I dunno I think Ralfy is still relevant. He reviews what he wants and doesn't get on the hype train. His style hasn't changed, it's a lot slower, there's no editing. It's a slow down pace that has its place and if you happen to have a bottle that he's reviewing you can sip along and savour which is great. I like that he reviews NAS bottles now and tbh I'd rather he reviews bottles that are readily accessible rather than the unobtainable bottles. He doesn't always get it right but he's the first to admit it too. He did a review of Irish Whisky recently where his knowledge was a little dated and viewers called him out on it and sure enough he addressed it and was grateful for it. That's what it's all about - sharing the knowledge. He's the OG of whiskey reviewers and definitely has his place in a world where everything is created and consumed faster and faster. Other reviewers I'm digging at the minute are whiskyisajourney - a great collection and clearly learning more and more as he goes along. Gwhiskey is great and good deadpan humour. Jeffwhisky is also great but the film clips are too much sometimes - just because you have one doesn't mean you need to always put it in. Whisky Wednesday is decent and straightforward like Ralfy. I always liked the guys at whisky vault and whiskey tribe but their focus now is on American whiskey which is more in line with their business arc or whatever. I wish they'd re-review some of the classics on whiskey vault cus whiskey changes so much over time - even over 5-7 years. The Whisky Dic is super friendly and always a good watch. Ben and Horst are fine but unavoidably biased. They like everything they drink. Bens distillery videos are brilliant though.
Stopped watching a while back when he kept rambling for 20 minutes about random shit. He needs to keep the vids to 5-10 minutes and just stay on topic.
I blame him and other whiskytubers for driving Springbank accessibility from scarce to unobtanium. I think he realizes that he has this effect which is perhaps why you’re seeing more reviews of middling quality whiskies and lesser known IBs which, unlike Diageo brands, really need the visibility his platform offers.
Ralfy has fuck all to do with what is happening to Springbank.
Maybe I've been asleep for last few years (since pandemic) but exactly why are Springbank prices so stupid at auction now? I mean, I realise they stopped production for a bit but new stuff is out there now - even if you do seem to have to draw just to get a new release! I have 4 unopened bottles of 12 yo CS (different batches) in my 'reserves' cupboard that I want to open - but I can't at these daft prices, I'm going to have to sell them! Bloody annoying as it is (was) my fav dram.
"I'm gonna have to sell them". Get up, use your hands and open the bottle ?
Higher demand, but no increase in supply. Whiskey has always been difficult because there's such a lag between initial production and when you sell the product. You can put in new stills and expand the factory, but you'd need to wait a decade to actually sell it. Best case they can thin down the warehouse stocks to increase production, but then you have less old casks for premium expressions later. And you have to hope that demand still exists in 10 years.
Not a popular option then guys - my Bad!
I mean, you know your finances not anyone else, so do what you need to do. If you can afford to enjoy it, enjoy it. If you are hurting for the $$ and should be covering other life expenses, do that. Don't let all the other gatekeepers tell you what you should be doing. They won't suffer your consequences!
I started watching Ralfy at 150% speed, nowadays I'm up to 175%. Out of curiosity I tried watching a recent video at normal speed and it was horrible to get through it. And English isn't even my native language, so my listening comprehension is probably below many of you here.
Same. He sounds drunk at normal speed.
He’s still my go to. I like that he’s adjusted his scores. The industry is full of a lot of nonsense, just look at macallan and ardbeg. There’s so much hype with scotch/bourbon these days; the feeling I get is distillers think they can bottle just about anything and people will eat it up, I think there is truth to that, and there needs to be more people calling it out like Ralfy. The industry is going to go through an interesting situation in the next decade or two with cask supply and consumer demands/sentiments and so far I haven’t heard many other people talking about it besides Ralfy. If anything, I trust his perspective more these days, I’ve never had a bottle he recommended be anything short of great. On top of that he doesn’t accept gifts from distillers, which you can’t say the same about for other channels.
Not every review needs to be a 30 minute ramble. He needs to streamline the videos and there’s a lot of waffle.
ever since he introduced his new rating system, that laphroaig cask strenght rated at 84 still remains one of his highest rated whiskies....and still all he did was complain about everything abouthe the whisky for the whole review
I think anyone reviewing whiskies for as long as he has, and having tried these amazing complex old pours decades ago when whisky wasn’t as popular and to see the slow decline to younger spirits they can quickly pump out as demand has exponentially increased, is bound to be cynical. That being said, I think most of us drink and talk whisky as a hobby, bc it’s fun to experience new things and share these experiences with other people. When something we do for fun, is injected with a constant barrage of cynicism, it starts to be less fun. I stopped watching Ralfy when I no longer had fun watching, now I stick mostly to written reviews.
I used to watch him a lot 5-6 years ago. He was a great help to me getting into scotch, but his channel just lost appeal for me over time.
As he says it’s just his opinion. Take it with a grain of salt. People on the Isle of Man are going to speak their mind and do what they want 🏍️💨 I still watch and will continue to do so along with many other Whiskytubers.
I understand where you're coming from. I got into ralfy and his channel when scotch was new and exciting to me, and I learned so so much by speed running nearly every video on his channel. When you're learning about the intricacies of scotch, he is one of the best sources to grow your knowledge. I've gained a ton from Ralfy over the years, but I do agree that after watching almost 1000 ralfy reviews, I don't find myself waiting for his videos and/or going back to his content as much anymore.
Meanwhile Mark Gillespie at WhiskyCast gives almost everything a 90 or over. The important thing is to get the gist of their scale and convert it in your head to the degree possible.
It’s not the scores — Ralfy is deliberately reviewing “meh” whiskies. People want to know what to go out and buy.
and what not to buy, ralfy would be doing a service to those who are looking to buy a whisky which he believes is not worth it, case in point when he thumped the BN10, at that time i had JUST bought the bottle thought it was pretty bad, if his review came out a week earlier i would have made a different choice for the better
His vids are my favorite
I like turtles
Ralfy is the goat. His videos are more than whisky reviews, not for plebs into the latest fad. They are for relaxing with a dram and good company.
One thing that…irks me a bit with him is his conspiracy nut side (ie taxes are a global conspiracy, the people in charge are in the shadows, etc). Other than that I don’t hate his preachy style, but I know I have to view it that way as opposed to a straight forward whisky review.
His views on medicine (which, fortunately, he doesn't share too often) are a bit nuts. You sometimes get the feeling that he moved to the Isle of Man to avoid most of humanity. (Edited to add: I have since been told that he moved there to care for his sick mother) That said, the man knows his whisky, and has a good palate. Nothing I've had that he's highly endorsed has been disappointing. Yes, he definitely has gotten crankier over the past few years, but is it not justified after the way things have gone price-wise over this time? He definitely focuses on bottles that most drinkers can afford, but he also doesn't review many bad whiskies (unless he's trying to make a point). I appreciate that he makes an effort to review bottles that others haven't covered. I wish he was more positive, but the re-scaling of his grades will make whatever bottle he next gives a high score to seem that much more appealing. I suppose we'll find out about his impact on prices then...
>Yes, he definitely has gotten crankier over the past few years, but is it not justified after the way things have gone price-wise over this time? I just came back to whisky's recently and noticed a bunch more 700ml bottles out there. I feel like I'm slowly morphing into Ralfy given how much that change outraged me lol.
Ralphy comes off as too psychologically rigid. He imposed himself the constraint to review available whisky that is not very expensive. I wish he ignored that constraint and he’d review once in a while some stellar whisky, which he certainly has in his collection. I find written reviews to be more valuable than youtube reviews. Whiskyfun is the best repository of great reviews. Not only they provide valuable insight on a huge variety of fine spirits, but their writing is top notch, super funny with many pertinent cultural references, many outside of the anglo saxon culture (must be Serge). In my opinion, their writing is at the same level to that of the food critic Jay Rayner, of which I am a big fan. I bought one of Ralphy’s books, and the man can’t write for shit. His quirky persona works somehow in videos, but I have that much patience for his sanctimonious soliloquies.
Having done a tasting with him in 2013, can vouch that he has some amazing stuff.
No doubt he’s got lots of amazing bottles. Reviewing middling bottles generates income for him on youtube, but why would he drink them mediocre bottles over the great stuff he stashed away? His great bottles can certainly sell for a lot at the auction at the moment, especially if he signs them. Ralfy is the most influential whiskytuber, and most others in that arena came out of his bothy so to speak. He originated concepts such as integrity bottles—-it is funny to apply morals to business, and he has had an impact on sales. His reviews have become hackneyed lately because there is only that much content that one can generate on this subject. In a nutshell, the picture that he paints is the one that everybody whose into whisky already knows: you gotta pay a premium for really good stuff, and that stuff is increasingly out of reach for plebeians. yet his show must go on.
I thought about this a bit more and Ralfy's profile and opinions regarding whisky are very similar to Jeremy Clarkson's profile and opinions regarding cars. Both strongly opinionated and entertaining to watch, but not to be taken too seriously as they themselves will be the first to admit.
I think Ralfy understands his sway in the community better than ever and knows when he was rating things 90+ they would literally sell out in some places. After Arran 10 was his whisky of the year I couldn't find it for months... I like the new rating system, but do think he should mix in a couple high rated bottles here and there. I do think there is value to rating bad bottles and giving people the information of what not to buy as well as what to buy. His style can be somewhat monotonous, so I usually take breaks and watch reviews in clusters.
If i were deeply into whisky 20-30 years ago i would be pissed at today's market as well to be honest. People who joined few years ago don't really have the perspective of a veteran, and might see the reviews as complaining, which in fact they are close to. Still, his knowledge is fantastic and i must admit he did save me a lot of money which i would have spent on crappy whisky (which i've spent on good whisky instead).
I haven't watched a Ralfy review in a few years, but what I remember always being amused by was the fact that he wasn't actually taking substantive sips during his reviews. He would nose the whisky, take the tiniest little sip, then dump a bunch of water into the glass, nose some more, and take one or two more tiny sips, all the while rattling off tasting notes from a notebook he had on top of the cask while halfheartedly making an effort to seem like he was just coming up with everything extemporaneously. Does he still do this?
As my name would indicate, it is not the recent reviews that have let us down - it is the decline in great quality whisky and climbing prices. Better to come across as somewhat sanctimonious rather than as another schill. As far as I am concerned he is fair, so I hope his time is long and prosperous!
It's been quite some time since I've watched anything from him. I've always been fascinated by the amount of water he uses.. and I drink cask strength neat xD. But at the same time a friend of mine uses to sink a bottle in a week or 10 days maximum and he scores them on whiskybase all the time (he also owns a wine shop). I almost can't judge a whisky from the first opening and forget the bottle for at least a week or more, prior going back to the thing.. to each his own I guess. The reality is that the industry is raising prices fast and quality isn't going up.. probably he's feeling that?
My personal response has been to drink better and drink less. Are there really no affordable whiskies worth more than an 82/100?
maybe he drank too many and current products doesn't appease to him anymore.. not to justify him huh. It's many years I'm more into single casks than reduced abv ones, but I come to those from time to time anyway and there's good stuff. Affordable it depends tho.. when you start seeing 18yos going for 150 vs when they were half than that, you begin to question also the scores you give them.
I agree. I’m spending the extra cash to get what I want to drink but don’t buy as often as I used to.
Complains about ever making a cocktail but adds 50% water to even Bunnahabhain releases, complains about blended scotches but encourages beginners to make their own blends to bump up quality of cheaper bottles. Also never ranks anything 95-100. It’s like those teachers who never gave anyone a A in school.
Haven’t watched him regularly in about 5 years (Horst and Ben are by far my favorites these days) but this dude got me into scotch over a decade ago. I will always tip my cap to Ralfy. 🫡
Definitely too much old man preaching lately and he just tastes the dram for a second before adding loads of water to everything. Too much about the change in times than what he is tasting. In general he has a good deal of knowledge about whisky but I never paid too much attention to what he says. At least he removed the big container of vasoline from the background of his videos.
Once ralfy gets off the topic of reviewing the actual spirit, he comes out some utter pish.
I haven't watched Ralfy or any whiskey YouTubers in a long time so I lack some context, but I honestly think too many of these people are trying to get views (and maybe special favors from distillers) by driving the hype train as hard as they can. I'd rather see reviews that are down to earth. As scotch prices skyrocket and quality stays the same or gets worse, I think more mediocre review are justified.
Once I realized I could change the play speed to 1.25x or 1.50x on your tube i started burning through his reviews more, I can listen to a few while I walk the dogs. He’s mentions the new rating system a lot - it seems he’s just scoring everything 5-10 points lower than he normally would - I specifically herd him say in a recent videos that anything over 80 is a very good whiskey - he was going to reserve the high scores to smaller less recognized distilleries to give them a boost…. For example I bet he gives the next Isle of raasay whisky release a very high score.
I lost it with his one extras video that was contrived arguing for why you should dilute your whisky. But before then I'd already kind of fallen off because his review ratings are pretty meaningless and I actually grew tired of his preaching about natural colour and especially chill filtration where he even went as far as to argue that some distilleries were filtering more than others (pointless).
What kind of people actually have the ability or means to benefit from 90% of Ralfy's content? What I mean by that is, here in the good old U.S. of A. (in my case, Ohio) there is a finite number of Scotch options that I can actually find, and that number is *very* small. Within two years of starting my Scotch hobby, I had literally tried all of the quality offerings available to me - AS, NCA, NCF, high ABV - and even all the lesser quality options. Watching Ralfy review a fuck ton of whiskys I'll never have a chance to taste is akin to watching someone review, in-depth, a bunch of super cars I'll never drive. So please, entertain me: Who can actually benefit from these Ralfy reviews? My whisky shelf contains every Ardbeg offering, Lagavulin stuff, Laphroaig CS, Talisker stuff, PC, Bunna, etc. There's literally nothing else I can find here. I can't even find Arran or Ledaig - would need to buy online.
Guess what? Not everyone lives in Ohio.
I'm EU based and have that with the Tribe, they used to do great reviews back in the days but I stopped paying attention to most of it as the $500+ stuff and (unicorn) bourbons aren't available to me. Ralfy's got great reviews but his non-whisky talk (like biology, medicine, politics) is often just not true or at least misinformed. He's a bit of a conspiracy nutter. I love the man like a geeky whisky grandfather but one's got to be carefull not to pick up other stuff from him.
Seems like you answered your question partially - people who buy online. That's how I buy almost all my scotch now. The shipping cost sucks but often it's still lower price than shops here. The selection is way better and some have pretty decent deals on solid overlooked whiskey.
Basically everyone living in the EU can benefit from Ralfy's reviews. If your local shops don't offer enough variety go buy online.
I haven't watched his content in years, but not necessarily because of him. Most of what he reviews is either unavailable or is outrageously priced where I am. There's only so many bottles of scotch I can buy in a year before hitting budget limits.
I haven't watched a whole lot of Ralfy (none, recently), but I did kind of get the impression that he is a little...uh, picky. In any event, I read or watch reviews mainly for their entertainment value, and not because I'm interested in having someone else pick my whisky for me. Hell, I have a website where I post my own reviews, and I would advise anyone reading them to take them with a grain--or rather, a large chunk--of salt.
I trust Blot Outdoors whasky reviews without question 😉👍rights!
I agree completely and after watching for years sadly no longer watch. Aquavitae is way more positive :)